AN-Uh, what do you think? Of course I don't own it! (Wipes a tear away)

Chapter Four

Training

It had been two years since his arrival in the sorcerer's realm, and Harry was now ready to return to his world. Although originally scheduled for four years, Harry had surpassed everyone's greatest expectations after only two years. No one had expected someone to push themselves as hard as Harry did, especially at his age. Tomorrow would be his last day before he returned, although he was happy to see his old friends and teachers, he had created some close friendships here as well.

Xander may have been a grouchy old man at times, but he would have rivaled even Sirius and James in the pranking department. His other teachers cringed in fear whenever Xander and Harry grinned mischievously, that fear usually escalated when the two snuck out of the room to plot their next attack.

Harry had changed a lot since his arrival in this realm, he was no longer a skinny little boy who wore oversized castoffs from his fat cousin. He was now nearly 6'3, had a muscular physique, and had broad shoulders from all of the weight training. An improved diet and exercise plan had made up for all of the mistreatment from the years of abuse that the Dursleys had put him through. Harry also no longer cared about anyone seeing his scar and now wore his hair in a short spiky cut, this way his normally unruly hair was too short to give him any trouble. On his tanned biceps he had a set of golden runes wrapping themselves down to his elbow, unfortunately, these tattoos had nearly gotten him killed by Sarah. When he had come in to get himself checked out after a particularly brutal weapons lesson, Sarah had unwittingly discovered the newly acquired body art, at which point had escalated to a full force man hunt for Xander. Even if Xander had ended up in the hospital wing with Harry for the next couple of days following, he had grown too attached with the art work to part with it.

On the morning of his last day, Harry quickly went through his morning exercises and showered before heading down to breakfast. Once he arrived in the dining hall, he started wolfing his food down before he noticed only Sarah and Ziana were eating with him. After washing his breakfast down with some juice, he was finally able to ask. "Where is everyone else today?"

"Well, good morning to you too." Sarah smiled at Harry's sheepish grin before continuing. "Since this is your last day with us for a while, everyone has decided to give you a break from all of the reviewing and have set up a rather evil obstacle course out there in the back field. Ziana and I will be giving you a change as well, but we won't be participating in their crazy course though. I'm going to show you how to set and heal a broken bone on the battle field, and Ziana here, will be teaching you the 'Felix Felicis'. Now, you had better head down before Xander has time to do something stupid again, like that time he created that lake of quicksand. I swear, if Feynman hadn't been around to counter it!" She trailed off while muttering darkly of things she would like to do to that 'man'.

Snickering at the look on Sarah's face, Harry grabbed a blueberry muffin and headed out. Once he reached the infamous obstacle course, he stopped in awe or panic, it was a cross between the two really. They were either trying to kill him or they really thought that he was invincible. Large jagged boulders rose out of the once flat field making it resemble a stone fortress in structure. In the center of his teacher's death traps, stood a two thousand foot mountain that Harry knew hadn't been there before this morning. Tall, crooked trees were placed sporadically among the monstrous stones, while a raging river cut a partial path through the labyrinth. "Great, this is going to be a lovely day" Harry grumbled as he started down to the group of smirking instructors.

"Alright there Harry, you look a little nervous." A grinning Vince inquired, as he elbowed Wolfus in the side. "He's right, you look a little pale, are you going to make it through our little lesson?" Wolfus asked, not looking the least bit concerned.

'Sheesh, set a small rain cloud over their heads for a day and they hold a grudge for six months. Maybe I shouldn't have shocked them too, oh well.' Harry thought as he listened to the rules for the course. Almost anything was allowed, but he wasn't allowed to fly to the top of the mountain, teleport, or retaliate at the teachers in the course, however he could deal with that... for now.

"Alright, you have three hours to reach the peak and rescue a 'victim' from a vicious 'dragon', are you ready?" Harry snorted at Xander's description, he really was enjoying himself way to much. Harry acknowledged that he was ready, and at the command he took off running towards what appeared was the entrance.

Five minutes after finally locating the real entrance instead of the illusional one, he climbed onto the top of a tall boulder and got his second glimpse of what proved to be a very tiring day. It appeared that every teacher had put something into the cause, except of course Sarah and Ziana, although, he had a feeling that Sarah would be involved at some point after this was over.

Roaming among the boulders and trees were all sorts of magical creatures, mostly large, but there were a few small ones thrown in for good measure. Ahead of him on the path lay a large cat-like creature with the head of a woman and white fur and small black stripes covering the rest of the body.

Harry heard the voice in his head but knew that it was coming from the sphinx ahead. "I am seeking the path to the top of the mountain, can you guide me there?"

The sphinx cocked her head and seemed to bore a hole through him with her gaze.

(A/N - I suck at riddles, give me a break.)

"More powerful than an army...Um...Lives in the heart in the spring...Ok... Lifts the heaviest soul... Fulfills hopes and dreams...Um, what happens if I get it wrong?" Harry asked after a couple of minutes of concentration.

She nodded her head to a towering troll flexing his muscles in anticipation.

"Uh, right, well give me a couple of more minutes to get this right." After a couple of more minutes, he looked up with a grin. "More powerful than an army, lives in the heart in the spring, can lift the heaviest soul, and can fulfill a person's hopes and dreams; its love isn't it?"

The sphinx smiled and moved off of the path, as the troll lumbered off with a disappointed look on its ugly face. Harry continued on a few more minutes before he ran into the next obstacle. A large whomping willow guarded a small tunnel to a clearing about twenty feet away. 'I hate these trees' he muttered as he narrowly avoided a thick branch that hit the ground with a rumble. 'Great, what did Hermione do last time? Oh, yeah." Psyching himself up for the ride, he jumped onto the next swinging branch and held on for the ride. After spotting the entrance a few feet away, he let go and sailed through the opening headfirst. After tumbling a few feet, he laid still until his head stopped spinning so painfully.

Still shaking his head to clear it of the cobwebs, he stood up slowly and continued on his way. Out of the corner of his eye, he could have sworn he saw Feynman shaking his head in frustration and stalking off. Brushing it off, he continued hiking without any additional encounters.

About a half hour later, he reached a point where he would have to cross the raging river cutting through the jagged rocks below. Seeing no obvious ways to cross, he considered flying until he remembered that it wasn't allowed. Seeing a large tree on the other side of the chasm, he reverted to his black lion form and shot a bolt of lighting to topple it over. It crumpled over and created a flimsy make shift bridge, seeing that it would not support much weight if at all, he transformed into his snake form and began to cross. Half way across, the tree began to splinter and slip off of the edge. Panicking, he reached out for his water element and created a wall of water that began to rise until the sagging tree was sturdy enough to slither across. Reaching the other side, he looked back as the water receded and the tree finally cracked unto its weight. Silently cursing whoever came up with that obstacle, he stood up and surveyed the next ridge warily.

An hour later, he had creating an inferno to dry up a quicksand trap and also escaped from an angry dragon similar to a Hungarian Horntail. He also had run into a group of armed 'teacher-bandits' and left them either hanging upside down from a tree, or lying in a smoking pile on the ground. He wasn't looking forward to meeting up with the Xander-bandit later after zapping him with a lightning bolt. Shuddering slightly at the repercussions of his actions, he finally reached the top and spotted a red flash ahead.

Curious as to what lay ahead, he crept up to a boulder and peeked around the corner to see a long, red headed figure tied to a post with a piece of paper attached to it's chest. 'I have a bad feeling about this one.' He thought as he crept up to a few feet from the figure before getting a good look at it.

The teachers were just able to either free themselves from the tree or cast cooling spells on themselves when a thundering yell reached them. "XANDER, I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS ONE!" Laughing at the worried look on Xander's face, Guran grinned and clapped his wizened hand on his shoulder. "Well, I think he found it, you might want to get a head start right about now. He does not sound impressed with your little stunt." Xander nodded grimly before apparating away quickly.

After seething a little, Harry saw a little humor in the situation. Tied to the post was a transfigured, red headed doll with a sign that had 'Ginny' written on it. He had told the others of his friends and their adventures, and somehow through all of the stories, Xander had gotten the impression that Harry was in love with the youngest Weasley. The proof for him lay in the way that Harry seemed to speak of her a little more than the others. Sighing deeply, he decided to head down to the bottom quickly, he had a long day of Xander hunting to do. Silently, his demon wings began to sprout from his back, stretched them out enthusiastically he dived off of the ledge as he glided down for his hunt.

After the discovery of his animagous forms, Harry had learned that he could merge different aspects of his forms, even when he was in his normal appearance. Vince had been badly shaken when Harry had accidentally shot lightning out of his hands during a match. After recovering from his burns, he had eagerly explored the new possibilities of this new found ability.

(A/N - Yep, using a little of book six here with that 'Felix Felicis', but hey, it is an interesting potion. Pure genius to come up with that one, thanks JKR. I was thinking of adding a few students Harry's age, but I decided that that may be too much to keep track of at this point for me. I may add some sorcerer friends his age later in the story, after all, Harry has to meet his people anyways. DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW THEN I WILL POST MORE CHAPTERS!!!!